One mistake in this article: not all major french cities are under socialist control. Of the 10 biggest cities, 3 are under UMP control (ie members of Sarkozy's party / gaullist): Marseille (mr. Gaudin), Nice (mr. Estrosi) and Bordeaux (foreign affairs minister Alain Juppé).

I am not surprised that communism becomes popular!What did the rich expect?! Never ending gambling with virtual money?! E.U. has failed with its way to set the Europe back on track! Hollande may serve as a tool to remind the rich their place!

I take great satisfaction from the fact that "The Economist" is evidently scared of Mr. Holland. It's high time to end the concept that politicians should first and foremost answer to traders rather than voters.

To billion dollar: do drop your yankee tunnel vision: this is Europe, where red means red and blue means blue.
To Nuijel: in France the PM does not decide on policy, in fact the PR chairs the cabinet, sets policy, which the PM "executes". Hence the reddish ping when Chirac was PM.

France had Conservative presidents since 1995 (Chirac then Sarkozy), 18 years is a long time in democraty life ... I don't think it is anormal for a democracy to switch to the other political side once in a time...

Hollande had never been a minister in a Government before but I don't think it is a problem. After all President Obama was in the same position before he became President. And he is doing his present job fairly well. I think Hollande should be given a chance to show his capacity before making any post-judgement.

A chance for what, pray? Spending more? 0bama is not a reference, I daresay. Frightening. And if France had had 18 years of "Conservative " PRs (Gaullists are in fact social-democrats, State-interventionists etc) it is because the People chose so.

Can you really compare this guy with Obama? The american left is on the right of the French right.
The main problem here is that the french left is not liberal. A change would be good, but not him... A man with Strauss Kahn's ideas and Holland's sex drive would've been better for sure:)

It is interesting how history seems to move in waves. In the early-mid twentieth century in the West, people struggled to replace their medieval faith in god with an equivalent religious faith in Marxism, which was then opposed by fascism. Thus we entered 70 years, all told, of what might be termed the Age of Dictators. And this Age was based on a highly distorted view of reality that caused terrible (and wholly unneccessary) suffering to those unfortunate enough to live in the nations thus affected. Now we're living through another age of unreality. In Europe and in the USA there's a complete inability to grasp the fundamental principles of economics. Many Europeans (not just the French) are obsessing about fairness (a surface phenomenon) instead of looking at the fundamental structural issues and in the USA people are obsessing about medieval morality rather than looking at the fundamental structural issues that are destroying the country's economical foundations. If history is any guide at all, there will be no "waking up" from the dream-state until catastrophe engulfs a significant number of us, decades of stagnation and social chaos ensue, and eventually a new generation is born that says "well, that was a bit of a blunder, let's try something different." So the next fifty years don't look particularly appealing, to say the least.

I find the chart confusing. Why are the Presidents coloured blue and red, seemingly in opposition with their position on the 'left' or 'right' political spectrum? For instance, Sarko and Chirac were definitely not 'leftist' Presidents (but are coloured blue).

I was wondering about that. Conceivably they are targeting an American audience that associates red with the right, but I agree it's highly counter-intuitive, and I'd have thought anyone who reads the Economist would be knowledgeable enough about European political symbolism to understand that red is the traditional color of the left.
EDIT: I think actually the chart key is wrong. If you look at the timeline, all left-wing governments are coded red, as you would expect for Europeans.

With any luck, Mr. Hollande will win and the bond markets will finally react to end the Euro's misery (or rather, the misery of those uncompetitive debtor countries shackled to the Euro) by forcing Eurozone leaders to realise that there is no firewall big enough to stop the rot so long as Germany continues to refuse (as she will)to mutualise the Eurozone liabilities. The Euro must break up.

L'Assemblé National is the lower chamber and the Senate is the higher one, clearly you did not pay enough attention during your civic education lectures. Also it is parliamentary majority, which means that youennarprat is right:) (I guess they're talking about the majority at the Assemblé National since it's the only one directly elected)

To begin with it is "assemblée" and "nationale", with no cap at "nationale" as it is an adjective. Next there is no such terminology in the French Constitution. Third "le pouvoir d'initiative des lois" lies with the Assembly, with some accommodation regarding the Senate. To speak of "lower" and "higher" is to introduce in the French system a vocabulary that belongs to parliamentary monarchies mainly (the Uk, or the Netherlands). I have a senior degree in political science, by the way. "Civic education"? what on earth is that?

A sad moment for my country, which I'm even more unlikely to go back to now.
With that said, you are perfectly correct in reminding that Mr. Sarkozy's campaign is not much more attractive for lovers of Freedom, economic and otherwise.
Let's hope that Mr. Hollande doesn't believe too much of his own B.S. (excuse my French). The only reassuring fact is that France is too important to the whole economic conundrum for outsiders, markets and governments alike, to let him err to far. Adepts of unapolegetic (delusional?) Gallic pride won't like it, but that's the hand they were dealt!

Odd argument:if you "won't go back" now it means, assuming that you became an expat in the past 18 years, that you left because of right wing policies. So why should you indeed go back under a Socialist PR? Unless you are either a Communist or a National Front zealot.In which case I hope you are safe in North Korea, or Zimbabwe. Stay there. And abstain.

It is not weird, just a matter of logic. The "unlikeliness" of you return was directly premised on a political argument. I thought you Frenchies were Cartesian? Gosh, your country is, indeed, in a sorry state. Glad we stayed out of the Euro.

Same here, I left a while ago. I still vote though, but according to what I think is good for Europe as I do not give a hoot about France.
To the rhetoriacl cosmopolitan, it's actually quite hard to get rid of a French nationanlity; it takes two years and a stack of paperwork...so if you want to make it easier, please do.